Amy Winehouse, 27, found dead at her London flat after suspected 'drug overdose'

By Sarah Bull

Last updated at 9:43 PM on 23rd July 2011

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• Troubled singer had a long battle with drink and drugs
• London Ambulance Service found singer at 3.54pm but unable to revive her
  
• She was 'beyond help' according to Sky sources
  
• Autopsy could take place 'within next 24 hours'
  
• Comes after Winehouse was booed off stage after shambolic Serbian show
  

Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in London.

The Back To Black singer was found at the property by emergency services at 3.54pm, and it's believed Winehouse's death was due to a suspected drug overdose.

Winehouse was apparently 'beyond help' when paramedics arrived, according to Sky sources.

Sources have also claimed Winehouse's death was due to a drug overdose.

Passing: Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home this afternoon

The scene: Amy was pronounced dead this afternoon after emergency services arrived at her house in north London

Tragic: Winehouse's body is seen being removed from her home

Dramatic: Police surrounded the property after Winehouse was found dead

WITHIN MINUTES 20M WERE TALKING TO EACH OTHER ON TWITTER ABOUT THE SINGER'S SUDDEN DEATH

Before it was announced on mainstream media the micro-blogging site was responding to the death of the singer and ‘Amy Winehouse’ quickly became one of Twitter’s 'trending' topics.

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Trending refers to whichever names or terms are the most talked about at that particular moment. These are defined by the site as ‘most breaking’ topics.

Unlike topics which are discussed for a length of time, such as the phone hacking scandal, trending topics see huge numbers of Twitter users debating subjects as they happen.

Shortly after the confirmation of her death, Winehouse was mentioned in nearly 10 per cent of all tweets worldwide. As there are 200million users this equates to 20million people communicating with one another about her death.

Two ambulance crews arrived at the scene within five minutes and a paramedic on a bicycle also attended, according to a spokeswoman.

'Sadly the patient had died,' she added.

More...

• A death foretold: The rapid rise and tragic fall of Amy Winehouse, the deeply flawed soul prodigy
• Outpouring of grief on Twitter over Amy Winehouse's sudden death
• Read PAUL CONNOLLY'S tribute to Amy Winehouse here

A statement from Winehouse's U.S. record label read: 'We are deeply saddened at the sudden loss of such a gifted musician, artist and performer.

'Our prayers go out to Amy's family, friends and fans at this difficult time.'

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: 'Police were called by London Ambulance Service to an address in Camden Square NW1 shortly before 16.05hrs today, Saturday 23 July, following reports of a woman found deceased.

'On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene.

'Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the death. At this early stage it is being treated as unexplained.’

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said in a press conference this evening that no cause of death had yet been confirmed.

He said: 'I am aware of reports of a suspected drugs overdose, but I would like to reremphaise that no post-mortem has yet taken place and it would be inapproporaite to speculate on the cause of death.

'The death of any person is a sad time of friends and family especially for someone known nationally and internationally like Amy Winehouse. My sympathy extends not only to her family but also to her millions of fans across the world.'

A spokesman for the late singer said: 'Everyone involved with Amy is shocked and devastated.

'Our thoughts are with her family and friends. The family will issue a statement when ready.'

It has also been claimed on gossip website RadarOnline.com that Winehouse's autopsy could take place within the next 24 hours.

Last public appearance: Amy joined goddaughter Dionne Bromfield on stage during the iTunes festival on Wednesday night

Healthy: Amy was spotted out in London looking healthier earlier this month

A Scotland Yard spokesman is quoted by the website as saying: 'The postmortem has not been scheduled yet but it is unlikely to take place before tomorrow.

'In the case of a murder it can be done within hours but this is not the case so tomorrow or even Monday is more likely in these circumstances.'

A section of the road where the singer lived remained cordoned off tonight. Journalists, local residents and fans gathered at the police tapes, while forensic officers were seen going in and out of the building.

Cutie pie: Amy looking adorable at the age of two

One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she saw the singer's grief-stricken boyfriend, believed to be film director Reg Traviss, on the ground outside the house.

Two women then came 'speeding' up in a black Mercedes and walked in and out of the house crying. They said they believed the singer was at home last night.

Winehouse's father, Mitch, is understood to be returning to the UK from New York. He had been due to perform at the Blue Note jazz club in the city on Monday.

A message has been placed on the club's website, reading: 'We are very sad to report that the Mitch Winehouse performance on Monday July 25th is cancelled due to the unexpected death of his daughter, Amy Winehouse.

'Our condolences go out to Mitch and his family.' Mitch is now on his way back from New York.

Winehouse had been seen with her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield earlier this week as the teenager took to the stage at the iTunes festival.

She refused to join in for Mama Said, but did support the 14-year-old with a few dance moves before urging the crowd to buy Dionne's new album Good For The Soul.

A source said: 'Amy staggered onstage and grabbed the mic to beg the crowd to buy her protege’s new album.'

Winehouse's appearance at the concert came after she cancelled her European tour following a disastrous performance in June when she stumbled onto the stage in Belgrade and gave an incoherent performance appearing very disorientated and removed from reality.

Unconfirmed: A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the cause of death has yet to be confirmed

Following the concert which saw fans enraged and the subsequent video that circulated to millions she cancelled the remaining dates of her European tour.

A statement released by the troubled singer's spokesperson at the time said that the singer would be given 'as long as it takes' to recover.

The statement read: 'Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances.

'Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen.'

Family: Amy with her father Mitch, to whom she was incredibly close, and her mother Janis

Shambolic: Amy was booed off stage during a shambolic performance in Belgrade in June

AMY AND BLAKE: A TROUBLED ROMANCE

Amy married Blake Fielder-Civil in Miami, Florida in 2007 but they were divorced two years later in September 2009.

From the beginning there relationship was fraught with difficulty as they struggled with addictions to crack cocaine and heroin. This led to numerous break-ups and ensuing make-ups.

Three months after they divorced speculation began to mount that they would one more marry. This was supported by the announcement on Facebook where they had both changed their relationship status to married.

But they never actually went ahead with it.
Fielder-Civil’s troubles continued and in June of this year was sentenced to 32 months in prison for burglary and possession of an imitation firearm.

Police caught the 29-year-old in a car in February with an altered number plate full of recently stolen possessions.

Winehouse had been working on her long-awaited new album, the follow-up to her 2006 breakthrough multi-million selling Back To Black, for the past three years.

The singer was born Amy Jade Winehouse on 14th September 1983 in Southgate, London.

Winehouse has had a troubled life which has included various stints in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction.

The singer is thought to have been to rehab four times.

In an interview in 2008, her mother Janis said she would be unsurprised if her daughter died before her time.

She said: 'I've known for a long time that my daughter has problems.

'But seeing it on screen rammed it home. I realise my daughter could be dead within the year. We're watching her kill herself, slowly.

'I've already come to terms with her dead. I've steeled myself to ask her what ground she wants to be buried in, which cemetery.

'Because the drugs will get her if she stays on this road.

'I look at Heath Ledger and Britney. She's on their path. It's like watching a car crash - this person throwing all these gifts away.'

In addition, there was a website set up called When Will Amy Winehouse Die?, with visitors asked to guess the date of death with the chance of winning an iPod Touch.

In an interview last October with Harper's Bazaar magazine, Amy was asked if she was happy.

She replied: 'I don't know what you mean. I've got a very nice boyfriend. He's very good to me.'

And, asked if she had any unfulfilled ambitions, Amy replied: 'Nope! If I died tomorrow, I would be a happy girl.'

As well her battles with drugs and alcohol, Winehouse also had a troubled marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil, who she divorced in summer 2009.

Fielder-Civil and Winehouse married in 2007 in Miami.

The pair's relationship - heavily documented by the media - saw them appearing in public bloodied and bruised after fights.

Former love: Amy with her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil

Troubled: Amy battled drink and drug addictions during her short life

It is also alleged former music video producer Fielder-Civil was the one who introduced the Back to Black star to heroin and crack cocaine.

Amy's father Mitch previously spoke out about how his daughter stayed away from drugs prior to meeting her ex-husband.

In a previous interview last year he said: 'He's not entirely responsible, she's got to take a portion of the responsibility, but it's clear, it really kicked off when they got together.'

Most recently, Winehouse was romantically linked to film director Reg Traviss, who she dated for a few months last year.

Weight worries: Amy also caused concern with her shrinking frame, and looked gaunt back in 2008 (right)

And Mitch also gave the new man his seal of approval.

In an interview with STV's The Hour programme, he said: 'I'm happy she's got a new boyfriend. I'm happy that she's moving on with her life.'

He said Traviss was a 'very nice, normal bloke'. The pair split in January this year but quickly rekindled their relationship.

In March, Traviss said: 'We've been together nearly a year now and we're very happy. Amy's doing well, she's fine. She's healthy and happy.'

AMY WINEHOUSE - THE LATEST MEMBER OF THE '27 CLUB'

The singer's tragic death at the age of 27 puts her in a pantheon of famous musicians who have all died at the same age.

Amy follows now joins the notorious 27 Club, also known as Forever 27, which is a group of musicians who have all died at the age while struggling to cope with fame.

Club members: Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison are among those who died at the age of 27

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was the most recent victim and in 1994, pumped with heroin and valium, he turned a gun on himself.

Decades earlier Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones all died at 27.

Rolling Stone Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1969; Hendrix choked to death in 1970 after mixing wine with sleeping pills and singer Janis Joplin suffered a suspected heroin overdose the same year.

Doors star Morrison died of heart failure in 1971.

Winehouse has also caused controversy with her weight over the past few years. After hitting the music industry as a curvy role model, Winehouse then shed an astonishing amount of weight, leading to her looking gaunt in 2008.

Amy had a hugely successful musical career with the release of her debut album Frank in 2003, and the record considered her breakthrough album - Back To Black in 2006.

The singer featured on the Sunday Times Rich List earlier this year with an estimated net worth of around £6million.

During her career, Winehouse won awards including five Grammy Awards, a Q Music Award for Best Album for Back To Black and a World Music Award in 2008 for World's Best Selling Pop/Rock Female Artist.

Finding love again: Amy is believed to have been dating film director Reg Traviss at the time of her death

Success: Amy performed via video link at the Grammy Awards in 2008 after winning five awards

AMY WINEHOUSE: A LIFE CUT DOWN IN ITS PRIME

by Adrian Thrills

The tragic loss of Amy Winehouse has robbed us of a young, if fatally troubled, life cut down in its prime. It has also cheated British music of a talent, at 27, whose best years surely still lay ahead.

As a homegrown singer, she was with without question the outstanding vocalist of her generation. Without Amy, there would have been no Adele, no Duffy and no Lady Gaga. She may have been an alumni of the Brit School, but Winehouse was also a British great.

In an era of manufactured stars and precision-tooled pop puppets, she was the real deal. For all her demons - and, sadly, sometimes because of them - she cut through pop's hyperbole. Her rawness and emotional honesty harked back to an era when the best singers were more believable. For a white girl raised in the North London suburbs, she had the sweet, sure touch of an Aretha Franklin or Etta James.

Tragic loss: Amy was a talented and much-loved singer and performer

Her talent was obvious from the off. The first time I saw her live was at the V Festival eight years ago. Tucked away at the bottom of the bill in one of the small tents, well away from the crowds gathering for headliners the Red Hot Chili Peppers, she oozed class. Dressed in a Fifties-style frock, playing a white Fender guitar, she showed nervous glimpses of a talent that would later wow the world.

I was lucky enough to interview her twice. The first time came shortly before the release of debut album Frank in 2003. Having met her in a photographic studio in Soho around lunchtime, we relocated, at Amy's insistence, to her favourite local Italian cafe, where we enjoyed a lengthy chat over a large, non alcoholic lunch. She struck me then as a witty, intelligent young girl on the cusp of womanhood.

Full of joy: Amy performing at the start of her career back in 2004

She was full of the joys of life and understandably excited about her future.

Confident in her own abilities, she was gleefully irreverent. Whereas other singers, media-trained to within an inch of their lives, were masters in the art of diplomacy, she happily sounded off with little regard of the consequences.

Unconcerned about how her words might look in print, she dismissed her peers.

Dido and Norah Jones, huge at the time, were among her targets. They were ridiculed for being bland. She was savage, too, in her criticisms of Madonna.

She was naive, yes, but immensely likeable. A glowing review ensued.

Later, shortly before the release of second album Back To Black, I came face to face with a different Amy. Noticeably more slight than when we'd met three years previously, she turned up late in a coffee bar close to her North London home, but still turned heads with her long, raven black hair and striking eye-liner.

But, while some of that earlier youthful, sparkle had gone, she still struck me as a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. Perhaps more aware of her own flaws, she even retracted what she had said three years earlier about her fellow female stars. 'When I was promoting my first album I was very defensive, so I lashed out a lot,' she said. 'But I won't be saying anything negative about other singers now. They've got their job to do. I'm just happy to be doing my own thing.' More mature in many ways, she was ready to let her music do the talking.

And Back To Black did just that. Rooted in emotional turmoil, it will go down as one of the classic British albums. Even now, in an era where female pop rules the charts in the shape of Adele, Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Gaga, nothing has come close to packing the sheer emotional punch of Back To Black. A departure from her jazzy debut, it was stark, simple and stunningly direct.

Musical stylings: Amy caused a stir with her first album Frank in 2004, and followed it with Back To Black in 2006

Musically, it was influenced heavily by Sixties girl groups such as The Shangri-Las and The Supremes. Lyrically, most notably on signature tune Rehab, it was clearly affected by the demons that were now troubling the singer. A far more commercial prospect than her eclectic debut, it went on to sell millions.

It won Grammys and Brits and established Amy as the pre-eminent soul girl of her age.

Despite her problems, the Amy I glimpsed during our brief encounters was different from her public persona. Nobody makes records as good and enduring as Frank and Back To Black without an intimate knowledge of the essential ingredients of great pop music. And Amy certainly had that in abundance.

For me, the most recent example of the way in which her talent truly touched people from all walks of life came in a conversation a few weeks ago with the great Tony Bennett, who sung with Amy on a track, Body And Soul, from his forthcoming duets album. As a singer who has worked with the best, from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald, he had no doubt as to where Amy stood - she was one of the best. Remember her this way.

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